Christopher EllisCEO Dynamic Physio Therapy

Tendons Explained: Function, Structure, and Bone Attachment #shorts

8 Sept 2026 · 1 min

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0:56

In this concise educational short, Christopher Ellis clarifies the anatomy and function of tendons while contrasting them with ligaments. He describes ligaments as passive, bone‑to‑bone connections that act like duct‑tape and are not meant to stretch. Tendons, by contrast, are the elastic, recoil‑capable interfaces between muscle and bone, stretching slightly but far less than the muscle itself. Every muscle has a tendon at its origin and insertion. Ellis notes the visual cue of muscle tissue: the belly appears red due to rich blood supply, while the tendon ends appear whiter, indicating poorer vascularization. He finishes with a relatable example— the firm, white piece on a chicken wing that attaches the meat to the bone is a tendon.

Chapters

So let me start off by describing what tendons are. I get a lot of questions about this. What's a ligament? What's a tendon? A ligament is a passive structure. Think of it as a piece of duct tape holding 2 bones together. So it's a bone-to-bone attachment, and it's, it's not meant to be stretched. Whereas a tendon deals with recoil and elasticity. It does stretch to some degree, not as much as the muscle itself, and it is the interface between the muscle and the bone. So the The end of a muscle is the tendon, which then transitions to insert onto a bone. So all muscles have tendons, one at the origin and one at the insertion. When you look at the muscle itself, the belly of the muscle is red, so it means it has a lot of blood supply, whereas the ends get more white, that transitional zone, that means poor blood supply. That's the tendon. So if you eat a chicken wing and there's that little firm piece that attaches to the bone, that's the tendon.